Humphrey Prideaux

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Humphrey Prideaux
Dean of Norwich
ChurchChurch of England
DioceseDiocese of Norwich
In office1702-1714
Personal details
Born(1648-05-03)3 May 1648
Died1 November 1724(1724-11-01) (aged 76)
NationalityBritish
EducationWestminster School London
Liskeard Grammar School

Humphrey Prideaux (3 May 1648 – 1 November 1724) was a Cornish churchman and orientalist, Dean of Norwich from 1702. His sympathies inclined to Low Churchism in religion and to Whiggism in politics.

Life

The third son of Edmond Prideaux, he was born at

John Fell employed him in 1672 on an edition of Florus.[1] He also worked on Edmund Chilmead's edition of the chronicle of John Malalas.[2]

Prideaux gained the patronage of

Sir Francis North in February 1683 presented him to the rectory of Bladon, Oxfordshire, which included the chapelry of Woodstock. He retained his studentship at Christ Church, where he was acting as unsalaried librarian.[1]

Prideaux married and left Oxford for Norwich, ahead of James II's appointment (October 1686) of

clandestine marriages.[5]

From 1689 to 1694 Prideaux resided at Saham. He declined in 1691 the Oxford Hebrew chair vacated by the death of

Henry Fairfax as dean of Norwich, and was installed on 8 June 1702. On the translation to Ely (31 July 1707) of John Moore, Prideaux recommended the appointment of Charles Trimnell, his fellow canon, as bishop.[6]

In 1721 Prideaux gave his collection of oriental books to Clare Hall, Cambridge. From about 1709 he had suffered severely from the stone, which prevented him from preaching. An operation was badly managed; attacks of rheumatism and paralysis reduced his strength. He died on 1 November 1724, at the deanery, Norwich, and was buried in the nave of the Norwich Cathedral, where there was a stone to his memory, with an epitaph composed by himself.[6]

Works

Among his other works were a Life of Mahomet (1697),

deists.[8] Its scholarship depended in particular on Pococke.[2] It was criticised by George Sale, in his notes to his translation of the Quran.[6] Its year-of-publication reprint was followed by a third, and a fourth; and four further editions between 1712 and 1718, and yet another reprint in 1723.[9]

The Old and New Testament connected, title page to fifth edition of 1718.

The Old and New Testament connected in the History of the Jews and Neighbouring Nations (1715–17)

Jean Le Clerc wrote a critical examination of it, which was published in English in 1722.[14] The French translation was by Moses Solanus and Jean-Baptiste Brutel de la Rivière.[15]

He published the following pamphlets: The Validity of the Orders of the Church of England (1688), Letter to a Friend on the Present Convocation (1690), The Case of Clandestine Marriages stated (1691).[8] Other works were:

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, engraving from the German edition of 1726 of The Old and New Testament connected.

His letters (1674–1722) to John Ellis were edited for the Camden Society in 1875 by Edward Maunde Thompson.[14]

Marriage and children

On 16 February 1686 Prideaux married Bridget Bokenham, only child of Anthony Bokenham of Helmingham, Suffolk, and left a son:

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Gordon 1896, p. 352.
  2. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22784. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  3. ^ Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, Pritchard-Pyx
  4. ^ Letters of Humphrey Prideaux, Sometime Dean of Norwich, to John Ellis, Some Under-secretary of State, 1674-1722; sent to John Ellis, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson, printed for the Camden Society, Nichols and Sons, London, 1875.
  5. ^ Gordon 1896, pp. 352–353.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Gordon 1896, p. 353.
  7. ^ The True Nature of Imposture fully display'd in the Life of Mahomet, &c., 1697; two editions same year; often reprinted (French translation 1698).
  8. ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Prideaux, Humphrey" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 315.
  9. ISBN 0-7531-5647-4
    . first print run sold out immediately, and a second edition quickly followed. This, too, sold out, and a third and fourth reprint soon followed. As tensions flared on the Barbary coast, Prideaux prepared a further four editions between 1712 and 1718; the book would be reprinted once more in 1723:
  10. Alexander M'Caul
    ); in French, Histoire des Juifs, &c., Amsterdam, 1722, 5 vols.; in German, 2 vols. 1726.
  11. ^ "History of the use of BCE/CE and AD/BC to identify dates".
  12. ^ "vulgar era - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary".
  13. ^ Earliest so-far-found use of vulgar era in English (1635). Retrieved 18 December 2007. [dead link] Johann Kepler, Adriaan Vlacq (1635). Ephemerides of the Celestiall Motions, for the Yeers of the Vulgar Era 1633...
  14. ^ a b Gordon 1896, p. 354.
  15. ^ Mullinger, James Bass (1898). "Solanus, Moses" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 53. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  16. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5108. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  17. ^ "Prideaux, Edmund (PRDS711E)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

References

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gordon, Alexander (1896). "Prideaux, Humphrey". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 46. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 352–354.

Further reading

Wikisource has the text of A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature's article about Prideaux, Humphrey.
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